Cyprus behind on freezing Russian assets, EU official says
The European Union’s commissioner for justice says the bloc’s executive arm wants to delve deeper into why Cyprus has only frozen 100 million euros worth of assets belonging to Russians facing sanctions amid the war in Ukraine
NICOSIA, Cyprus AP" target="_self">(AP) — The European Union’s executive arm wants to delve deeper into why Cyprus has only frozen 100 million euros ($110 million) worth of assets belonging to Russians facing sanctions amid the war in Ukraine, the bloc's justice commissioner said Thursday.
Compared with other EU member states that have each frozen as much as 2 billion to 4 billion euros worth of Russian assets, Cyprus’ reported sum “seems to be a little low,” European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders said.
After talks with Cyprus Justice Minister Anna Koukkides-Procopiou, the EU wants to review sanctions enforcement in the east Mediterranean island nation given the large amount of Russian investments there, Reynders said.
He cited a Cyprus Central Bank report saying that in 2020 alone, the country received 96 billion euros in Russian investments.
